Ludwig Lüders

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Monument to Ludwig Lüders in front of the Christophorus Church in the Braunschweig district of Leiferde.

Ludwig Lüders (born March 21, 1822 in Kirchberg near Seesen , † March 2, 1908 in Braunschweig ) was a German village school teacher and cantor as well as the inventor and designer of the beet seed planting machine .

life and work

Lüders was the son of a timber merchant. From Easter 1842 to December 1845 he attended the preparatory institute in Wolfenbüttel , where he was trained as a primary school teacher. Lüders then worked as an assistant teacher in the village of Thiede , before taking up the position of village school teacher in Leiferde near Braunschweig in 1848 , which he held for almost 50 years, until his retirement on October 1, 1895.

In order to be able to earn a living, the school also required a few acres of farmland that Lüders cultivated himself. He also grew sugar beets on his land. The sowing of this root crop , however, was dominated at that time still very laborious and time-consuming manual work of many people. Since there was a lack of workers, schoolchildren were also used to sow the seeds, which however meant that they either missed lessons, were only able to participate partially or were overtired. Lüders lamented the effects of this child labor, among other things, in an article in 1862 that he published in the Braunschweigischer Magazin .

For this reason Lüders began with the first attempts to build a seed drill from around 1850 . By 1855 he had succeeded in developing a well-functioning model. After further attempts and optimizations, he finally showed some farmers on February 18, 1860 what he called the “beet seed planting machine” with great success. In the same year Lüders won first prize in a competition for such machines in Mahndorf near Halberstadt .

Lüders' machine revolutionized the sowing of sugar beet, as it was able to carry out three different and consecutive work steps considerably more efficiently: The "beet seeding machine" drew a straight furrow into which the seed could then be evenly introduced using a so-called cell wheel and a tube. Finally, a roller attached to the machine closed the furrow again. Another wheel on the machine also marked the position of the next row of seeds.

In 1861 the Herzoglich Braunschweig-Lüneburgische Kreisdirektion in Braunschweig patented Lüders' machine on the recommendation of the district council of the Steterburg domain . Lüders manufactured the first 100 machines himself in the Leiferde forge . In order to be able to devote himself entirely to school work, he finally sold the patent to the Braunschweig mechanical engineering institute Heckner & Co. , which then produced his machine in series. A machine with the number 86 built according to Lüders' patent by Heckner & Co. is now in the local history museum in Schöningen .

On May 8, 1895, Lüders was awarded the Ducal Order of Merit in recognition of his achievements. After his retirement in the same year, he moved in with his son-in-law who lived in Ackerhof 1 in Braunschweig.

In honor of Lüders, farmers from Leiferde erected a memorial stone with his portrait in front of the Christophorus Church there on December 22, 1955.

literature

  • Heinz Mollenhauer : A memorial stone for the inventor of the seed drill (Ludwig Lüders) in Leiferde, Kr. Wolfenbüttel. In: Braunschweigische Heimat 46th year 1960, Braunschweig, Heft 3, pp. 91–92.
  • Bergit Korschan-Kuhle: Lüders, Ludwig. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 392-393 .
  • Erich Kindervater: A memorial sheet for the 85th birthday ... In: sheets for sugar beet growing. Volume 14, Verlag der Deutschen Zuckerindustrie, 1907, pp. 82-85.
  • Karl Rose: A Leiferder seed drill in the Schöningen local history museum. In: Heimatbote des Landkreis Braunschweig 1974. Oeding, Braunschweig 1974, pp. 120–121.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Heinz Mollenhauer: A memorial stone for the inventor of the seed drill (Ludwig Lüders) in Leiferde, district of Wolfenbüttel. P. 91.
  2. ↑ Ludwig Lüders: Also a word about sugar beet growing. In: Braunschweigisches Magazin der Braunschweigischen advertisements. 11th issue, March 15, 1862, pp. 81-85.
  3. ↑ Heinz Mollenhauer: A memorial stone for the inventor of the seed drill (Ludwig Lüders) in Leiferde, Kr. Wolfenbüttel. P. 92.
  4. ^ Karl Rose: A Leiferder seed drill in the Schöningen local history museum. P. 121.
personal data
SURNAME Lüders, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher, inventor and designer
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirchberg near Seesen
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1908
Place of death Braunschweig